Kate Scott broadens horizons of sports radio

Updated 4:36 pm, Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Kate Scott has been KNBR's morning sports anchor for two years. She is a lesbian in a straight-male-dominated industry.

Kate Scott has been KNBR's morning sports anchor for two years. She is a lesbian in a straight-male-dominated industry.

Photo: Courtesty Of Kate Scott/KNBR, Courtesty Of Kate Scott / KNBR

Kate Scott broadens horizons of sports radio

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Kate Scott has always been a sports junkie. Every day before kindergarten, she would watch "SportsCenter." She memorized batting averages and dressed up as Will Clark for Halloween, imitating the Giants great all the way up to the eye black. She played, too - tennis, basketball, track and soccer.

But after wrecking her knee playing soccer at Clovis High School near Fresno, Scott focused her attention on covering sports instead of playing them, joining the school newspaper. School advisers suggested that she combine two of her passions - sports and talking - into a career.

These days, Scott, 30, is KNBR radio's morning sports anchor, a job she has held for the past two years. She's a lesbian in a male-dominated industry.

"I always hoped that I would have the opportunity to be a positive role model for all the different groups I represent," Scott says. "So, to have it now, just by doing something that I love doing, it's hard to describe how awesome it is."

She responds willingly to any issues involving gays in the sporting world, and talks openly on the air about her wife, but work comes first.

"She understands she's a pioneer. She understands how what she does has an effect on other gay people," says KNBR sports host Larry Krueger. "She doesn't (fixate) on it, which makes her so good."

Scott expresses joy at waking up at 3 a.m. to broadcast on the air from 5 a.m. to noon. She knows just how much coffee to drink in the morning and just when to chime in on the air. She is biting, Krueger says, but brutally honest, a refreshing change amid the canned responses from so many other pundits. "Kate's been successful because she believes in herself," says morning show co-host Paul McCaffrey.

And that voice. "Polished," Krueger calls it. "Buttery," says McCaffrey's co-host, Brian Murphy. It is a voice made for radio. She even does voiceovers for commercials.

Scott was something of a pioneer even during her days at UC Berkeley, where she became the first full-time female "mike man" yell leader during Cal football and basketball games. Like with her radio work, Scott did not set out to break barriers or stereotypes. It was just something fun to do that she was good at.

Still, she knew that her mike-man job was special when Cal alums would repeatedly praise her as a good representative for young girls and lament that those opportunities were not available when they were in school.

"It wasn't why I wanted to do it," Scott says, "but the fact that it was having an impact on people was pretty cool."

Despite being a rare female in the boys' club that is sports radio - and much of sports journalism - Scott holds her own. "A lot of guys think that they know more about sports than women do," says Lee Hammer, KNBR's program director and sports operations manager. "She doesn't back down. She knows what she's talking about. She keeps guys in their place with the way she handles herself on the air."

Nor does she back down to those who object to her sexual orientation. With the proliferation of social media, it is easy for people to say things anonymously.

She prefers to think of the person who told her that he does not know any gay people but listening to her has helped him broaden his horizons. She remembers someone else who decided to come out to his family after listening to her on the radio. Girls walk up to Scott and tell her that she is their inspiration.

"Those always outweigh the negative tweets and e-mails and stuff I get," she says.

Program director Hammer would like to keep Scott at KNBR as long as possible, but she has aspirations to take her trailblazing talents to national TV.

"By the age of 30, she's achieved name recognition; she's her own brand," McCaffrey says. "She's proof that the best way to achieve those things is just being yourself."